Only of course it's not. That probably has some immediate implications, but as artificial intelligence and robotics develop, those implications will become more and more profound. And they'll no doubt raise ethics questions.

And this happens to be one of the curious topics addressed in Darwood & Smitty.Though I won't say more than that, because I'm not a fan of spoiling stories.

What I will say is that the books brings up the topic with Android baristas, which is similar to these early(and creepy?) robots designed for running a hotel, and you have to wonder what happens as robots replace more and more human jobs. Will we adapt and have more (creative) jobs that only humans can do?

Or will it drive a greater division between rich and poor with a dwindling middle class, as some have said? Which becomes an interesting question: if corporations can replace everyone with robots and most of the population ends up with low paying jobs, only able to pay for their essentials ... how could anyone afford to visit the coffee shops or hotels where the robots work? At what point do corporations undermine themselves?

Or again ... does it lift people into more fulfilling lines of work? We've been replacing people with technology for decades ... if not since the founding of this country really. And while we can argue about the real value of wages today vs. other periods in history, you can't deny that, in some ways, our lifestyle is vastly improved. 100 years ago, not even the richest person could have owned a TV or computer. A little before that, they could not have flown on an airplane. We can have symphonies or rock stars playing for us any time by plugging into a device in our pocket.

There are drawbacks of course -- an increasingly polluted world; technology that lets the government become ever more invasive; the ability for others to steal our identities.

All this to say ... this naked woman who isn't really a woman brings up a lot of questions about our future. And I'd love to hear what you think about whether androids in human jobs will improve our lives or impoverish them.

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